


A Liar and a Cheat (whom tragedy struck)

by Waddles889



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family, Gen, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Mabel Pines-centric, Stan Pines Needs A Hug, Stan Pines-centric, but it's the best i could come up with without resorting to song lyrics, i must emphasize, is this fandom even still alive, listen i know the title sounds super pretentious, please comment id really appreciate it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2019-12-24
Packaged: 2021-02-25 05:34:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21930769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Waddles889/pseuds/Waddles889
Summary: Stan had a lot of pictures of the beach in his room. Mabel's favorite was a beautiful photo of the beach at sunset, framed between the two swings of a rickety, old, wooden swing set. The sun cast long shadows back toward the camera and painted the whole scene in a breathtaking gold.Mabel liked it because somehow, despite the beautiful scenery, it felt sad.~~~Or, Mabel's perception of her grunkle over the summer.
Relationships: Dipper Pines & Mabel Pines, Dipper Pines & Mabel Pines & Stan Pines, Dipper Pines & Stan Pines, Ford Pines & Stan Pines, Mabel Pines & Stan Pines
Comments: 13
Kudos: 126





	A Liar and a Cheat (whom tragedy struck)

**Author's Note:**

> i couldn't sleep until i wrote this

Grunkle Stan was a lot sadder than he liked to pretend.

Mabel liked to think she was good at reading people. She could tell when Wendy was getting stressed, she could tell when Dipper was feeling anxious, she could even tell when Grunkle Stan was lying. 

He lied a lot.

She also knew that he didn’t get a lot of sleep. At first, she chalked it up to an old person thing, but one night, she heard him wandering around the house at 3 am when she went to grab a glass of water. When she tried to look for him, he was nowhere to be found. 

Grunkle Stan was a conman. He made his living on lying, and it worked. Every day, a pack of tourists would flood the Mystery Shack and Stan would lie to them for hours on end. He was an incredible liar, able to weave a tale with just enough details to prove credibility but not enough to make you suspicious. But Mabel knew his tells. 

She knew when he lied to Dipper about stealing his snacks. She knew when he lied to her about what he put in his Stancakes. 

But most of all, Mabel thought, Grunkle Stan lied to himself. 

His smiles were too wide, some days. His mouth creaked painfully into a grin that masked his exhaustion. Mabel was familiar with that type of smile. 

The worst days were the ones where he was just quiet. Dipper and Mabel learned to leave him alone those days, unless they were giving him hugs or making hot chocolate. Mabel hated those days. She just wanted him to be happy, but something was eating at him, and it probably had been eating at him for a really long time.

Mabel shuffled towards the kitchen, socked feet nearly silent on the old wooden floor. She paused in the doorway. 

The kitchen table was already occupied. Grunkle Stan's back was to her, but Mabel could see enough of his face to tell that he looked... lost. He held a pair of square glasses gingerly in his hands, absentmindedly rubbing his thumb over the lens. In front of him, a thick book was open on top of a spread of papers. 

Something must've tipped Stan off to Mabel's presence. He turned his head and smiled gently. "Hey sweetie, what are you doing up?" 

"Can't sleep," Mabel whispered. 

He laughed without humor. "Me neither."

Stan had a lot of pictures of the beach in his room. Mabel had noticed them when she first snuck in to plant the truth teeth. Her favorite was a beautiful photo of the beach at sunset, framed between the two swings of a rickety, old, wooden swing set. The sun cast long shadows back toward the camera and painted the whole scene in a breathtaking gold. 

Mabel liked it because somehow, despite the beautiful scenery, it felt sad. She chalked it up to the swings being empty, but something deep down insisted there was more to the story.

When Grunkle Stan admitted he knew about the magic, Mabel’s perception of him shifted. She thought she knew when he was lying, but maybe she shouldn't have been so sure of her people reading skills against a professional conman. 

Dipper was angry, but Mabel couldn't bring herself to be. If anything, Stan seemed even sadder after that. Dipper didn't see it, but Mabel knew Stan was sneaking downstairs every night now. He was still the same Stan, always ragging on them to pick up the slack, cackling at the worst pun Mabel ever had the pleasure of hearing, driving her to a secret mini-golf rematch in the middle of the night, but whatever had been eating at him before was eating at him more than ever. 

After her puppet show, Stan got serious. He patched Dipper up and sat them down in the kitchen.

"I’ve never seen you fight like that before. What's going on?"

Mabel laughed. "Oh, don't worry about it. You know how it is: sibling rivalries and all that. It won't happen again." She threw her arm around Dipper’s shoulders for good measure. 

"Yeah," Dipper said, picking at the thick white bandages wrapped around his arms. 

"This isn't a joke. Fights like that? Aren't a joke. Don’t let a dumb 'sibling rivalry' drive you apart. It's not worth it, and it ain't pretty." Stan sighed heavily and rubbed his forehead. He leaned back in his chair. "I’ve seen it happen. Don't let it happen to you."

Mabel and Dipper shared a glance. 

"Just... go to bed," Stan said. He got up with a grunt and vanished into the gift shop.

Then everything took a turn for the worse. 

The government took Stan away. Dipper and Mabel found the box of fake IDs. 

Who was their grunkle, really? A professional conman so good at lying that he lied his way into the Pines family? A man who tried to escape his past but only succeeded in lying to himself?

Mabel wanted to be angry. She really did. But she couldn't. 

She didn't know who their grunkle was, but she knew who  _ Stan _ was. Stan, who tried to get Soos' birthday removed from the calendar. Stan, who sewed hats for his fishing buddies. Stan, who had water balloon fights and set off illegal fireworks just to spend time with them.

And Mabel trusted him.

After Stan’s brother came through the portal, Stan was happy, but that disappeared when Ford continued to hold a grudge. Mabel couldn't wrap her head around it. How could anyone stay angry at their sibling for thirty years over one mistake?

Instead of being sad, Stan got angry. He didn't sneak down to the portal at night, he snuck down to give the punching bag a piece of his mind. 

He still went on adventures with them. He set off on a fantasy quest to rescue Dipper and Ford from a math wiz(ard). He ran for mayor and stopped Gideon from blowing up Dipper and Mabel. He went on a revenge road trip. 

But Mabel knew he was upset. After everything he did, his brother wouldn't even give him the time of day. Mabel couldn't imagine what she would do if Dipper left her in the dust like that. 

And then she didn't have to. What she heard over the radio absolutely crushed her. It was like the world crumbled around her, like she was reaching for something just out of sight, like she was shattering into a million pieces. 

It was like the world was ending. 

Dipper had promised they wouldn't get all stupid, but here they were, and here Mabel was, stuck with the wrong backpack in the middle of the forest.

Who could blame her for wanting some reprieve? She would have taken anything. Sweater town, ice cream, a hug, but what she heard was too good to be true. 

Mabel liked to think she was good at reading people. She knew how to tell when someone was lying. And from watching Stan all summer, she was a pretty good liar herself. 

So she lied. 

She lied to herself. 

After the world ended, Stan wasn't sad or angry. He wasn't happy either.

He was just... confused.

The confusion didn't last long, thanks to some quick thinking and his deep-seated hatred (read: love) for Waddles, but something was still missing. 

Mabel couldn't figure out what was wrong. He had his memories back, Ford had thanked him more than enough times, and the Shack had been repaired. Everything was the best it could possibly be. 

She didn't find out until a week later, when the title of Mr. Mystery was handed over to Soos. 

Stan and Ford were back in action. They sent postcards from everywhere they visited. More often than not, the postcards had been severely damaged by some kind of monster attack, but Dipper and Mabel loved to get them in the mail anyway. 

They video chatted every chance they could get. Somehow, a cat had found its way on board the Stan O’ War II, but neither twin had the heart to get rid of it. They found treasure almost every week. Ford had already disproved the Bermuda Triangle, discovered the Kraken, and found the missing Flight 19. Stan had gotten arrested in six countries and gone to prison in none. He learned how to knit and made Ford a pair of gloves with six fingers. 

Mabel liked to think she was good at reading people. 

And Stan?

Grunkle Stan was the happiest he had ever been.

**Author's Note:**

> VDBV KH'V KDSSB, KH'V D OLDU.  
> VWDQOHB SLQHV ZDV WKH PDQ ZKR VDYHG WKH ZRUOG.


End file.
